Security for travellers: Nepal

I'm sorry, I truly am:

The Himalayan Times on Saturday August 4:<blockquote>Quote
<hr>Bus robbery: One killed

Himalayan News Service
Biratnagar, August 4:

One person was killed and 15 injured when robbers attacked a bus on Mahendra Highway at Dodhare of Bayerban VDC in Morang last night. The bus was heading to Pokhara from Kakarvitta.
Twenty-year-old bus conductor, Hari Bhandari, of Birtamod, Jhapa, who was critically injured in the attack, died at Dharan-based BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS) while undergoing treatment, the Urlabari Area Police Office said. A gang of eight persons carrying a pistol and khukuris had attacked the bus.
Police said the gang looted property worth Rs 4 lakh from the passengers.<hr></blockquote>Be careful out there! I'm assuming this bus was no regular tourist bus to Pokhara (i.e. to be recognised from the outside as a tourist bus), but does that make the news any less worrying and sad?

Sad but not worrying unless you are the paranoid type. Criminal acts happen all the time all over the world, you can do your best to protect yourself from crime but can never guarantee you'll not be a victim a crime.

What can you do to prevent such? Its karma or probabilities..

People should know the reality of the situation in Nepal. In India there is extensive police, military and health care. In Nepal not. Law and order has gone down the river.
The robbers were likely moaists, with the few police there are in Nepal can do nothing against them, they have the power. What's worse is that they are not organized, with different groups of moaist gangs across the country. They are really just thugs. Hopefully as a tourist you will not run into them, but they make up maybe 30% population, so they might just be running your guest house or be your trecking guide.

People should know "chaudi" is an Indian tout, offering himself for a hundred $ a day as your personal guide around India and Nepal.

=link=

Nothing wrong with trying to make a buck, just as long as it doesn't result in Nepal-bashing. Which wasn't the intention of my post, just thought it's important to know what's going on. No paranoia, just thinking practical.

dear old_goat please take you head out of your ass. thanks.

bèèèè...

Sure. You don't mind I trashed your PM without opening it, do you?
And because you're indeed one of those shameless, persisting touts, I will now make you "an ignored user"...

Oh and for the record:<UL>This chaudi-character keeps doing his best to kick Elsie James from the forum, accusing her of touting. While all the time he keeps using this profile:

First Name: Chance

Last Name: Wayne

Username: chaudi

Bio: Stupid makes money. Money kills art.

Chaudi's Subcontinental Reality Tour:
I am available as a personal guide around India and Nepal. Cost is 100$ per day + expenses. You will have the time of your life and like no other. Pm me for details.

Country: Cameroon

Website: http://www.youtube.com/mysecretplanet<BR>
Message Posts: 561

Joined: Mon January 01, 2007 10:21 AM

Last Visited On: Sun August 05, 2007 11:42 AM

Average Posts Per Day: 2.60
</UL>

Yeah, and he accuses me of touting as well....

The only person who is a tout is stilltrekking who works for www.trek2nepal.com.<BR> The rest of you are just nut cases.

"Chaudi's Subcontinental Reality Tour:
I am available as a personal guide around India and Nepal. Cost is 100$ per day + expenses. You will have the time of your life and like no other. Pm me for details."

That seems like sarcasm to me. Intentional or not, I wouldn't like to say.

i dont believe chaudi is a tout. i think he is is arrogant and aggressive in his responses to peoples questions on this site, but not a tout. I read his profile "Chaudi's Subcontinental Reality Tour:
I am available as a personal guide around India and Nepal. Cost is 100$ per day + expenses. You will have the time of your life and like no other. Pm me for details" as reeking of sarcasm.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that - and you are right about his aggressiveness and arrogance.

Well I'm glad Roman did some tidying up around here meanwhile, even if he overlooked this particular thread.

"I'm assuming this bus was no regular tourist bus to Pokhara (i.e. to be recognised from the outside as a tourist bus)"

Dumb question, but what do the tourist buses look like? I took a bus from KTM to Kakarbhitta and it seemed like it was just an ordinary bus, with just Nepalis on board. Where do you catch the tourist buses from in Kakarbhitta?

I wouldn't know, but you remember too how tourist buses used to be clearly marked when the war was still on (Maoists throwing bombs around, or looting buses). With lawlesness not exactly having left the country, it would be interesting to hear if tourists can still travel on the apartheid-buses, for their safety...

First of all, this board is plagued with Nepali touts. Stilltrekking and tomtraveller both are guides and at least stilltouting works www.trek2nepal.com<BR><BR>some of you are so naive to think these people are nice travelers who spend their days giving out trekking info.

I try to warn others, so when they ask"are planes and helicopter reliable in Nepal" and the stilltouts says oh yes Nepali are such great pilots etc.. this just bull shit, because stilltouting will also arrange for you flight to Luka! they are here for this reason only. to get business. Admitting they may know 'some' things about trekking etc, they are guides after all. But do you really what this tainted advice? The flights in Nepal are very erratic, and can be canceled at any time. This is sort of info tour operators do not want you know, because you may not book the ticket then!

This is just one example, this is what they always do.

If you think i'm agressive etc. it's becasue you want to be a bunch of parrots who nod their heads and agree with each other.

This forum is for indepedent traveler not for touting and advertising. If something is unsafe, i think people want to hear the real answer not some tour operators version. Why should this forum be overrun with touts?

secondly, "Chaudi's Subcontinental Reality Tour:
I am available as a personal guide around India and Nepal. Cost is 100$ per day + expenses. You will have the time of your life and like no other. Pm me for details."

what can i say, except that if you believe that you probably believe anything i put there, like "worked for childrens charity for many years in bangladesh.... great saint, gigolo and trekking guide"

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>they are here for this reason only.<hr></blockquote>Especially where you speak about Elsie, I MOST STRONGLY OBJECT TO YOUR INSINUATIONS !

I feel no obligation at all to elaborate any further. But just want you to know that over the past couple of years that lady has been invaluable - also very much "behind the scenes" - in several missing trekker cases and other emergencies.

Now you try to get into that thick head of yours, chaudi, what I'm actually saying here.
As for this board and the immediate interests of foreign tourists to Nepal, I will gladly go for one stilltrekkin, one Bai, and one of several more usernames (TT regulars) rather than a million chaudis!

btw yes: old hand = me as well

Chaudi I dont think anyone believes the thorntree forum is 100% tout free (that being said i am not familiar enough with the above mentioned users to make comment on them).

You obviously have knowledge of travelling in the area.

The thing that gets to me about your input on this forum is the hostile manner that you use.
For example, a user recently posted a story on the india branch about how a taxi driver attempted to scam them whilst driving them from the airport to their hotel in delhi.

Your replies included the following:

"Sounds like your mad because YOU screwed up! why didnt you hold onto your receipt? why didnt you insist on him taking you to your destination? i wouldnt go to some travel agent in the middle of the night. This is in fact an old scam."

and this

""oh how bad was it really? Sounds like its all in your head, some kind of drama king...didnt you know to hold onto your prepaid taxi slip? how dumb is this?"

Fair enough, its an old scam. Fair enough, that traveller should have been more switched on.

However there is no need to stick the boot in when they are already down.

Since my name has been kicked around here several times on this thread, I feel like it is time that I responded. Thanks Meike and Write On for your defense. I appreciate it. As for you Chaudi. I have told you before that I do not and have never been connected to the company on the website address that you give in your August 5 posting. In fact, I haven't looked at the website and I don't even know who they are. I do work in partnership with a Nepali NGO, Ecological Protection Forum, www.epfnepal.org.np in a number of village service projects. I do bring some groups to Nepal as part of fund raising activities for our projects. I do not act as a Guide taking jobs away from Nepali trekking Guides. I do occasionally go with the larger groups as the First Aid person. I have done business consulting for a number of Nepali owned companies including the one owned by my project associates. I receive no personal remuneration for any involvement that I have with the trekking company. In addition, I am an advisor to Porters Progress Nepal and a country representative of the International Porter Protection Group. All these activities do help me to provide assistance to responsible, reputable members of the Nepalese trekking Industry. And if I have some biase it is certainly that I am pro-Nepali trekking companies as opposed to foreign owned operations who take the large portion of their profits out of the country.
The information that I give on Thorn Tree is honest and I try to be unbiased. I do not receive commissions or payment of any kind for my participation here. Yes, I have made personal recommendations from time to time when people have asked for my specific opinion and recommendations if I know a company or an individual who can help them with their inquiry, I will pass that information along. But again, I do not personally gain anything from that activity by way of commissions, wages, etc. And I do my best to do this by way of PM rather than on the open Forum, mindful that advertising is not the thing to do here.
On one hand I don't feel that I owe you any kind of an answer Chaudi but your attacks on me and several other credible, helpful people on this Forum are entirely unjustifed - I am not sure what your problem or motivation is for the "bad mouthing" that you do. Either contribute something positve and useful to the discussions or get lost! I don't know you, nor do I want to. You don't know me, so stop the slanderous, uninformed statements.

OLD HAND - just one quick comment regarding the bus incident you mentioned. There are no "Tourist Only" buses from the Karkebita border crossing to Kathmandu. There is not enough traffic to warrant that service especially right now during the monsoon season (the heaviest one in 15 years) and the Mahendra Hwy goes through the area with the worst flooding. You have a choice of riding the local buses all the way to Kathmandu or going as far as Narayanghat on the local bus and transferring there to a Tourist Bus plying the route from Chitwan NP to Kathmandu (altho' they may not be running at the moment. Stopping in Narayanghat can often entail an overnight stay to make the connection. Most people feel that it is not worth it. You will note that there was no mention of any foreign passengers in the report of this incident. You can be sure if there were foreigners aboard it would have been mentioned. If foreign travellers are concerned about riding the buses through this southeastern area of Nepal that has been experiencing some ethnic demonstrations and politically motivated violence, the option is to travel from Karkebita to the airport at Bhadrapur (less than 30 min by taxi) and fly to Kathmandu..I did this myself in early May on the way to and from Darjeeling and Sikkim.

Hi stilltrekkin! Thanks for the info on the buses.

As for that neverending show of pine_apples, Grand_Mals and chaudis, I can imagine you wanted to say something yourself here too. I've decided to look at them this way: they give you an excellent opportunity to tell us all a little more about all the things you do in (and for) Nepal! :-)
And the chaudis usually don't last very long, as this old thread shows (esp. Bai's June 15 reply. Of 2005, that is).

Anyway, I read that the Maoists are gathered at Balaju at present. I'm curious what will happen in the next few months, and if they will remain in the government. As long as they stay put, hopefully the country gets a chance indeed to do something about development. After it has overcome this awful monsoon...